Baghdad, February 22: An Iraqi electoral candidate has escaped an assassination attempt unhurt as a car laden with explosives was remote detonated in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul.
The Sunday explosion targeted a hopeful from the al-Iraqiya bloc; a broad secular alliance of Iraqi groups headed by Ayad Allawi.
Security forces cordoned off the area after the attack and launched an investigation to look into the motive behind the terrorist move. Police said a suspect was arrested close to the site of the blast.
The incident took place a day after a female contestant running in Iraq’s forthcoming parliamentary elections was shot dead west of Mosul city.
On February 7, two unidentified gunmen opened fire on the al-Iraqiya bloc’s Soha Abdullah Jarallah in Mosul’s western neighborhood of Raas al-Jada. The assailants managed to flee after the deadly attack.
Iraq’s nationwide parliamentary election in March, the first since 2003 in a fully sovereign Iraq, is seen as crucial to help stabilize the war-battered country. Officials have warned that attacks by militants trying to disrupt the vote would probably occur more frequently as the election nears.
Iraq has been witnessing violence ever since the US invaded the oil-rich country under the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction in March 2003.
Mosul is regarded as one of the urban bastion of militants in Iraq. The capital city of Iraq’s Nineveh province is situated some 396 km (250 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
——-Agencies